I re clotted last month, and for me, it was just minor discomfort/pain that wouldn't go away. Even 2.5 years out, I have "bad days," so initially, I didn't think much of it. But this didn't get better, so after a few days, I called my doc and sure enough, they found a small clot behind my knee.

I was totally surprised when I got my second clot in my left leg. The first clot was 10 years earlier in my right leg. I got the first one after a very long car ride. The second? Who knows. I hadn't been on a long car ride but was on a much shorter car ride a few weeks before the second DVT but the doctor said that that was not the cause. Second clot was similar to first clot. The biggest cause of concern for me was the swollen ankle. The leg was also swollen but I must have been in denial because I didn't go to the doctor until the ankle swelled and that took at least 2 weeks after I felt discomfort in my leg.
Clot #3 was diagnosed on August 11 of this year. It was in the left leg and I thought the swelling came from mosquito bites. I had lumps on the inside of my lower leg and then my ankle got swollen too. I was in complete shock when a week later, during a routine checkup, the doctor noticed the swollen ankle and sent me off to the hospital for a leg scan. Yup, those mosquito bites turned out to be clots in two different veins.
So my answer would be a big red alert for me is a swollen ankle. It's hard to notice a second clot in the same leg because the leg is already swollen to some extent and discolored from the first clot.
Pretty scary.

My second DVT was in my arm. Even though there was no swelling or redness, my skin felt really tight around my forearm and elbow, and within a few day, I had charlie horse pain that started traveling up my arm and it got worse over a few days. I saw my doc, she did an EKG in her office to make sure I wasn't having an heart attack and then sent me to the hospital for an ultrasound that same day. And that was that.

I will says that when it comes to my leg, I still have intermittent pain and discomfort, and my DVT was in 2007. So that's also just part of the damage from the clot. I guess if there were no obvious symptoms like redness and swelling, then I would look for signs of pain that gets worse, is not intermittent, on going cramping, etc. Unfortunately, not all DVTs feel the same.

I agree that not all DVT's present with the same symptoms. I had calf pain with my first two dvt's but none at all with my 3rd dvt. I really and truly thought I had mosquito bites because there were at least three lumps in my leg with lots of itching.

Many thanks for your responses. I never had swelling or redness, so anytime I get persistent cramps or an ache, I take another aspirin and elevate and see if it goes away. I was really annoyed at the lack of concern by my doctors and the fact that I am self prescribing because I got nothing as a preventive. The one doctor did say that some people never get another one, but since I do a lot of sitting at the computer and am disabled from arthritis which makes walking a problem, I just try to get up and move about every hour and watch my diet because my lifestyle hasn't changed much. It really concerns me that we can go so long and not have another clot, so it is a forever condition and yet there isn't much we can do about it.